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Editor: Dr Tim Harding
      

ICCF President resigns

It was announced this weekend that Mohamed Samraoui, the Algerian-born President of the International Correspondence Chess Federation, has resigned with immediate effect. His successor will be appointed at the 2008 ICCF Congress, due to be held in Leeds, England, in September, which now faces a serious challenge to stabilise the organisation which was founded in 1951 and is recognised by FIDE as the world governing body for correspondence play.

Mr Samraoui has lived for many years in Germany, but has been fighting extradition attempts for political offences alleged by the current government of Algeria, which he has denounced for Islamist extremism and abuses of human rights.

During the 2007 ICCF Congress he was arrested in Spain on foot of an extradition warrant, which was a considerable surprise to his friends in ICCF who knew him as a charming and cultured man and were unaware of his sinister background.

Mr Samraoui successfully fought this move and was able to return to Germany. At this time, newspaper reports revealed that Mohamed Samraoui, who was born in 1953 in the east Algerian town of Bordj, once held the rank of colonel in Algeria's feared secret service, the Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS). Following a deterioration in the Algerian political situation, after 25 years in the army, Mr Samraoui applied for and obtained political asylum in Germany on 19 April 1996.

However, he was unable to travel to the 2008 Congress in Bulgaria and previously had been unable to attend a congress in Argentina because of problems obtaining a visa.

Due to his inability to travel to ICCF Congresses abroad, his position as leader of an international sporting organisation has become increasingly untenable and it is only surprising that he did not take this step earlier.

Since ICCF's finance director, Søren Peschardt has also resigned for undisclosed reasons, having only taken over the position at the last Congress following the mid-term resignation of his predecessor, the organisation now appears to be in a state of minor crisis. It is fortunate that this year's congress is to be held in an easily accessible city where a large attendance of delegates can be expected.

ICCF has announced interim elections for a new President, and also for a new Financial Director, to serve until 2011 when the current terms of office of its directors expire. Nominations are now open through national correspondence chess federations.

A fuller article may follow.

For more details and the text of Mr Samraoui's resignation statement, see the ICCF website.